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DIY Roman Shades

You’ve heard me talk about how gross the last tenants were in our current rental.  It was pure nastiness up in here when we took over.  One of the things they left, were filthy window coverings – broken mini blinds, and spaghetti sauce all over some other blinds.

Truly lovely people.

The mini blinds behind our kitchen sink were broken, and nasty.  I’ve tried fixing them, and cleaning them, but there was no rescuing these things.

That is where these instructions from Little Green Notebook came in.  I took the mini blinds from this:

 

To this, in an evening.  New Years Eve was a wild and crazy night in my house, let me tell you!

To the left, you’ll see my awesome knife bar I got for Christmas.  to the bottom, you’ll see the lovely backsplash Troy put in for $100 before we moved in.  to the right, you’ll see the crazy duck towel holder my mom installed and I used to make fun of constantly when I was younger.  I freaking love how kitschy it is now.

An up close shot of the fabric.

I couldn’t love this fabric any more if I tried.  I wanted to something fun, bright, busy, and patterned so that if we splashed it with water or something while washing dishes, it wouldn’t be super obvious.

I used Liquid Stitch from the fabric store.  I also covered the back with the same fabric, so that it looks like a plain curtain from the outside when the shades are down.  After years of having to look at the ass side of broken blinds, I figure I owed our neighbors a pretty view!

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32 comments on “DIY Roman Shades”

  1. I LOVE that fabric! I just love how the print looks and I think it has lovely shades! I do have to agree with you that the blinds just looked really sad. Good thing that you were able to express your creative side and made them have a much happier appearance. 
    Greg Arnett

  2. I’ve seen a lot of posts with people using the old metal blinds to make roman blinds with – is there a way to do DIY roman blinds without the old blind?

  3. I’m loving the print, Sarah! It looks so retro with the pattern you chose! The blinds from the past tenants was disgusting. Ha-ha! But, you made it look that nothing ever like that happened. By the way, where did you get that lovely fabric?

    • Everything from the past tenants were disgusting. Just a gross family all around.

      The fabric is from Joanns! It’s just regular cotton, something like $7.99 a yard. I of course had a 40% off coupon.

  4. Great work Sarah! I looovvve your fabric choice.

  5. So, yea… you forgot to mention where you got this super cool idea. Even if I don’t remember sending it to you.

  6. Sarah, These are gorgeous. This is the kind of kitchen where I want to pull up a chair and sit down with a warm drink and chat with you. In fact, after reading your blog for a while, any kitchen would work. We’d laugh!
    XO
    Christine S-P

  7. thanks for the disgusting before pics! lol